vocals in jamming room drown by instruments?

[theiboy]

yo there everyone.

jus wondering have any of u vocalist experience a time where the band jus play too loud and u have to try and sing louder to be heard and the result of trying to sing louder tires ur throat easily and the voice out of tune?

i tried to turn the volume of mic louder but more feedback and even if the mic is at its loudest, i think i still need to sing louder(i noob at the eq settings)...
or issit the only way for the band to play softer?
any other suggestion??
need help guys!!! and gals!!!
thanksss!

and just wondering if any of u vocalist played in gigs, does this problem ever occur?

 

[Necrome]

A band who doesn't know how to play in a decent volume for the voice to cut through is a lousy band. Just ask your band mates to quieten down. Loud doesn't = good.

Make sure your Pan is always in the middle, and pan the band instruments to non-central positions (this is general advice, doesn't apply to all cases and all genres/instruments). But many studios use sub quality amps for voices or share them with another instrument's amp or place their vocal amps in the wrong position of the room anyways, so it'll probably sound crappy most of the time.

 

[lester_music]

your band is not sensitive to each other, you guys need to balance the sound for every single instrument before jamming or practising...make sure the sound is balance....

in the studio, the drums are usually not mic, so the drummer himself got to "engineer" himself to the volume of the band......


my band spend about 1/2 an hour getting the right tone & plus getting a balance sound within the studio..then do a final sound check before the actual practice...when someone is too loud, some one will raise the red flag for him to tone down or his volume will eat up the rest....you can't blast in the studio cause its small...there are no spaces for the sound to escape...

sound bal is important...

a good band can sound bad with poor sound balance..

a bad band can sound good with good sound balance

 

[theiboy]

thanks man! guess now i noe where the prob lies. thanks a lot!

 

[Sacred Alliance]

Hey Dude..

It happens most of the time.. and i know it gets irritating because u cant hear urself n u find urself screaming at the top of ur lungs..

1) Wear ear plugs.(Either 1 side or both..)
This way u will be able to pitch better, and u will be able to sing more comfortably.

2) Musicians need to tone down.
I agree with the rest, balance is impt. Where u r standing in the jam room is impt too!!

3) Vocal projection is essential.
A singer is a singer.. u need to project the melody in different strengths!!

That's all i have to share!! I m still learning too!!! =) so i hope u find it helpful!!

 

[CogitoAngMoh]

advice

theiboy

It's actually a very simple issue:

1) everybody you are playing with needs to turn down. often in jamming / practice situations, there is a "volume war" that occurs. somebody is playing too loud and everybody starts to turn up the gain / volume so their own sound cuts through the mix. a lot of times this is caused by the drummer playing too loud (sorry drummers, i play too) and everybody has to crank it up to compete with him / her. before you know it, everyone is playing at ear splitting levels and the vocalist(s) can't be heard

2) most of the vocal PAs in the Singapore jam studios are not the best, i'm sorry to say. they're underpowered and poorly set up. you have to turn them up full blast just to even be heard at all. that then causes feedback and it all turns into a big mess quickly.

i have a feeling i know what jam studio you guys are playing at. PM and let me know....i may be able to recommend a better studio with a decent PA.

Cheers,
Marc

 

[Lovehurts]

Yep, i agree with CogitoAngMoh. Most of the equipment in jamming rooms here in SG aren't good, but decent enuf i guess.

I've had that problem before as well & i basically just told my bandmates to bring their amp volumes down & i slightly increased my vocal level. That did the trick for us.

When i first started having jam sessions & band practice a few yrs ago, i would just try my best to sing above the rest of the band. And then one fine day, I lost my voice because of over-straining almost to the brink of shouting.

Not cool at all.

 

[Cavett]

+^ Agree to all inputs above. If only drummers have a volume knob built in them... :mrgreen:

Another way to overcome this problem is to learn some basic audio knowledge on how to set your mic gain, eq and overall volume settings on the Powered Mixer. Most jamming studios in SG have "under powered" Powered Mixers set up, so its important to know how to fully utilise with whatever equipment you have.

A general tip, if possible do avoid cutting excessive mids and applying the V-shape equing. This in turn will prevent you in being "lost" in the mix..

 

[Lovehurts]

Yea man! if only drummers can with a knob!

But from experience, really good & seasoned drummers know just how to balance their sound & play with dynamics not just whack their life away from the 1st verse of the song till the end.

Good drummers are able to control their volume.

 

[babyjosef17]

Yes. It's all in the drummer. It's his playing that will dictate the balance needed fo the whole band.

During high school, I never really understood this and did not really cared that much. Just let my bandmate play asloud as he want and we just amp everything up so not o be drowned. Guess you already have an idea how we sounded like. Good thing everyone else was the same lol.

It was only in college, when I finally jammed with a Real Drummer I noticed the importance of balance.

So yeah, ask your drummer to try to control his volume. The rest will follow.

 

[Lovehurts]

Yep. For me in my experience, it usually stems from the drummer.

When the drummer starts whacking away, the lead guitarist will sooner or later boost up his amp volume, and then the bassist will follow suit so as not to be drowned out by the lead guitar & then the keyboardist will also have to up his amp. Then the poor vocalist is left to suffer cos i mean there's only so much volume that we can boost. Of cos vocal projection is important no matter what.